RFR(S): 8039042: G1: Phantom zeros in cardtable

[Vladimir Kozlov]

Jon,

We already do that for UseMemSetInBOT flag in vm_version_sparc.cpp. And 
it is correctly use has_blk_init() check because is_T4() is not reliable.

Vladimir

On 5/14/14 1:34 PM, Jon Masamitsu wrote:
> Per,
>
> Could you use a check on the sparc version to decide
> on when to use memset.
>
> VM_Version::is_T4()
>
> in cpu/sparc/vm/vm_version_sparc.hpp
>
> Jon
>
> On 5/13/2014 3:34 AM, Per Liden wrote:
>> Summary: We use memset to initialize the cardtable. On Sparc T4 (and
>> later) memset uses some special instructions with the side-effect that
>> the memory can temporarily be filled with zeros before the actual
>> value is set. These phantom zeros can be observed by concurrent
>> readers of this memory, which can trick the G1 post-barrier to
>> incorrectly dirty a card in a young region. Please see the bug for a
>> more details.
>>
>> A similar memset-problem has been observed and fixed before
>> (JDK-6948537) when using memset on the BlockOffsetTable. Similar to
>> the BlockOffsetTable, I'm using the UseMemSetInBOT flag as an
>> indicator of whether it's safe to use memset or not. UseMemSetInBOT is
>> not a perfect name for this flag as code other than the BOT might want
>> to use it. It's also questionable of this should be a command-line
>> flag at all. I've filed a separate RFE, JDK-8042930, to do a bit of
>> clean up related to this flag.
>>
>> Bug: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8039042
>> Webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~pliden/8039042/webrev.0/
>>
>> Thanks!
>> /Per
>